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Kangaroo survey on Mount Panorama tipped to be vital in second circuit plans

Melanie Pearce
Thu 10 Jul 2014, 6:51 AM AEST

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A survey to track the movements of kangaroos on Mount Panorama is to get underway in August, 2014

ABC News, Melanie Pearce

The head of new survey of kangaroos at Bathurst's Mount Panaroma says the research will play an important role as second race track is considered.

A team from the University of Technology, Sydney, will soon start using hidden cameras, a drone, GPS collars and microchipped tags to track the movements of the marsupials.

Daniel Ramp, the Director of the Centre for Compassionate Conservation based at UTS, says the data must ensure that if a second circuit is built, the impact on wild animals is minimised.

I think that study will actually be really important in helping the council do the best job when they look at putting in this new race track

Dr Daniel Ramp from the Centre for Compassionate Conservation, based at the University of Technology, Sydney

"Our study on the Mount Panorama kangaroos is a real beginning towards that but we're planning on engaging in a much wider survey of where kangaroos are in the landscape and how they are connected," Dr Ramp said.

I think that study will actually be really important in helping the council do the best job when they look at putting in this new race track."

The Bathurst Regional Council has helped fund the research.

"The centre has actually provided a fair bit of equipment of its own. It's provided GPS collars and we're going to be using a drone to count some kangaroos," Dr Ramp said.

"The council assisted us by enabling us to buy some cameras and also the identification tags. It's been very generous of the council and we're looking forward to a good collaboration with them," he said.

Dr Ramp says now all the equipment has been purchased, a student from the Centre is due to start on site next month installing the camera trap array.

Local people with wildlife skills will also help capture 30 kangaroos which will be tagged and microchipped.

Dr Ramp says it's hoped the people of Bathurst take ownership of the project through the tagging scheme.

"There'll be different colours and hopefully we'll give them a label that makes them really identifiable so that if anybody wants to look at them through binoculars then they'll be able to record their location," he said.

"Particularly if they're somewhere other than where we think they're going to be so if someone sees one and says hey green tag in the left ear is hopping down main street, they can report that and we can use that data as part of our investigations."